Dorell’s MIP Case

Nope, Dorell Wright didn’t get a minor in possession. He’s 25 years old, so there’s no way he could even get one at this point. Dorell isn’t a household name, and unless you were a Heat or Warriors fan you still might not know that he even exists. The Warriors acquired him over the offseason for the next three years at a fairly cheap $11M. I had no idea what we got when we signed him, and have been in many a texting frenzies with the blog mates on how awesome he is for many of the Dubs games this year. I thought he was more of a defensive guy since all the reports that I read said that’s all he really was at the time the Warriors acquired him. Somehow, some way, he’s morphed into a knock down shooter (in best Mark Jackson voice). He currently leads the NBA in three pointers made (85), and is making up for the scoring punch to ab offense that lost Morrow, Azubuike, and Maggette this past season. So far this season, Dorell has gone up in every major category making him my hometown bias pick for, the most improved player. As his minutes went from 20 to nearly 39 per game he has doubled up in his averages in every major category. His points have more than doubled (7.1 to 15.7). His rebounds have nearly doubled from (3.3 to 6.2). His assists have more than doubled going from (1.3 to 3.1). His steals have gone up from (0.7 to 1.4). People might knock his field goal % dropping 5 points, but my reasoning for that is he’s taking a ton of threes (averaging 6 per game), which would lower anyone’s percentages a little. With all those threes he’s taking, he is 27th in the league in 3PT percentage, which makes me not care that his FG% overall has taken a little dip. There’s no signs of him slowing down since the W’s have no bench. Another reason to hand the award to Dorell is that he came out of nowhere to relevance this season. All the other guys I’m about to mention were all at least relatively known at the beginning of the year.

I guess there are some other candidates out there, but in my eyes none of them have improved from last season to this season as much as Dorell, but here are some that I think are in the running. Kevin Love is a beast that should be considered for the award, but at the same time we saw some of what he’s doing this year towards the end of last year, so does that really count as improved now that he’s getting the minutes and already showed us that he could do this? I say no, but it’s arguable. Russell Westbrook and Derrick Rose are on the same plane in my book. Rose has had an amazing season, and shown that he is indeed fantasy relevant instead of just a good player he has been boosting his stats in nearly every area. Westbrook developed a jumper this summer and is scoring more, but both of these guys were stars already, and I commend them for their improvement, but it just isn’t significant enough of an improvement to earn the MIP award. I’d put Raymond Felton slightly above them, because he is improving tremendously in every category much like Dorell, but being in D’antoni’s system jumpstarted that more than anything. We all knew that Felton was solid, just not this good. An honorable mention for a guy on the radar is Paul Millsap. He started off the first month of the season like he was going to win the award, but has fallen back to earth a little now that Al Jefferson has figured out the Utah offense, and mans the post keeping Paul away from this award. Michael Beasley also made the honorable mention list. He was a bust in Miami, and now is a main cog in Minnesota and hasn’t had any legal troubles thus far. If he keeps it up he should be on the list with his teammate.

28 responses to “Dorell’s MIP Case”

The kid has got game and then some ! By the way did your hear the crap that went down with Nick Van Exel’s son ? Suffice to say he shot his friend with a shot gun then decided to dump the body and weapon. When confronted by the cops he said he panicked because he didn’t know what else to do . If memory serves me correctly that’s the same excuse used by ex Nets’ player Jayson Williams after he shot his limo driver some years ago .

Dexter does it because he’s getting scum of the streets what’s Van Exel’s son’s excuse meant to be ? ‘I didn’t know that the gun was loaded at the time I pulled the trigger’ ? Guns don’t kill people …… just dumb ass people with guns kill people !

Man, I was hoping for a guns don’t kill people I kill people from Happy Gilmore reference! Anyways, I agree, morons kill people…

I like that the Knicks are relevant. I’m sure I’ll tire of it quickly, but at the moment it’s refreshing. I can’t remember who, but someone was saying they are like a knockout boxer with that offense. They can be beat, but at times they throw those devastating haymakers ie. 10-0 runs.

They shouldn’t ever put themselves in a position where the “panic” and dumped the evidence, and I’m a guy who sufffers from panic attacks. I wouldn’t ever kill anyone so that I would need to use it as an excuse.

Well Jay Wil formerly of the Nets was the ‘poster child’ for that sh_t when he shot his limo driver Gus Christofi and then told the cops it was an apparent suicide . Mutha’ fu_ka should have had his balls lobbed off ! But here the law is overseen by a punch of p_ssies !

Van Excel must feel proud that his son is following in his footsteps to an extent as he’s no shrinking violet himself !

It’s the same story as last year, injuries to the big men. Hopefully we can hang with your Magic squad tonight. We’re up 32-26 early in the second, so I’ve got some hope building early! I’d have more hope if they weren’t so bad on the road…

You came up with a solid list of guys who will probably get more consideration than Dorell. I’d throw in Eric Gordon as well. But like you said, all of these guys were relatively important players last year. Dorell went from irrelevant to main cog, albeit on a faulty machine….

I think the voters will side w/ Kevin Love, b/c what he’s doing on the boards is just plain silly. But from the perspective that Chappy & I come from, D. Wright is by far the most improved player, or at least the most “Where The Hell Did That Guy Come From?” player.

I thought that was a very interesting comment about Westbrook and Rose being on the same plane. I think most people would be inclined to say that Rose is better since Rose is really the only superstar that Chicago has.

I was watching the game and as the onslaught became much worse I basically got up and took the dog for a walk. I’m not saying that Spurs went down badly but hell at least show some grit ………. rather than taking it like some “prison bi_ch ” who’s about to have their cherry popped !